Slavery, Family, and Gentry Capitalism in the British Atlantic
The World of the Lascelles, 1648–1834

A study of the British Atlantic World through a case study of the plantation-owning Lascelles.

S. D. Smith (Author)

9780521863384, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 July 2006

400 pages
23.4 x 15.6 x 3.2 cm, 0.777 kg

"Smith's book is a thoroughly researched, wide-ranging, and surprisingly accessible economic history of the vast transatlantic business empire created by the Lascelles and other gentry capitalists during the 18th century." -Brooke N. Newman, The Journal of African American History

From the mid-seventeenth century to the 1830s, successful gentry capitalists created an extensive business empire centered on slavery in the West Indies, but inter-linked with North America, Africa, and Europe. S. D. Smith examines the formation of this British Atlantic World from the perspective of Yorkshire aristocratic families who invested in the West Indies. At the heart of the book lies a case study of the plantation-owning Lascelles and the commercial and cultural network they created with their associates. The Lascelles exhibited high levels of business innovation and were accomplished risk-takers, overcoming daunting obstacles to make fortunes out of the New World. Dr Smith shows how the family raised themselves first to super-merchant status and then to aristocratic pre-eminence. He also explores the tragic consequences for enslaved Africans with chapters devoted to the slave populations and interracial relations. This widely researched book sheds new light on the networks and the culture of imperialism.

1. Introduction - remembering and forgetting
2. Halls and Vassalls
3. Rise of the Lascelles
4. Lascelles and Maxwell
5. The Gedney Clarkes
6. Merchants and planters
7. A labyrinth of debt
8. Managing a West India interest
9. The enslaved population
10. Between black and white
11. Epilogue.

Subject Areas: National liberation & independence, post-colonialism [HBTR], Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]